Maine is located about 1,500 miles south of the Arctic Circle (it’s closer to Miami, the Press-Herald points out), but it also lies on the other end of the Northwest Passage from Alaska, and is connected by shipping lanes and commerce to important ports throughout the North Atlantic.

Perhaps it’s no surprise then that Maine's junior U.S. Senator, independent Angus King, after to a trip to Barrow and a voyage through the Arctic Ocean on a Navy submarine told Sen. Lisa Murkowski, “I want to be the Arctic senator.”

“She said, ‘No, you can be an assistant Arctic senator,’” King told the Press-Herald.